Double Book Reviews

Hello, everyone! Today, I have short reviews for the two books I’ve read so far this year. It makes me a little sad that I still haven’t gotten back into my old reading habits, but I’m still working on it. Hopefully, I’ll be posting more reviews regularly in the near future.

The first book of 2020 that I finished was One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I’ve been hearing about her for what feels like decades because everyone and their mother was OBSESSED with The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo when it came out in 2017 and Daisy Jones and the Six when it was released last year. I decided to hop on the Taylor Jenkins Reid train, but the only one of her books available on Libby (the library e-book/audiobook app) without a ridiculous waitlist was One True Loves.

This story was just okay for me. I ended up rating it two-out-of-five stars because while I can see why people enjoyed it, it just didn’t hit the mark for me. I would recommend it to people who really enjoy the romance genre, but I think I’m too much of a cynic/realist for romance novels. I know, I know. You’re all saying, “Why bother reading it and rating it low if you know you’re not going to enjoy it? What’s the point?” But Kayla from Booksandlala said it best in one of her reading vlogs/challenge videos when she talked about how reading/rating something you go into not expecting to like basically solidifies your tastes. It gives me the opportunity to find the things I do and don’t like in romance books. This one just so happened to have way more things I didn’t like than I did. Does that make it a bad book? No. I just personally felt the characters did things that seemed a bit farfetched, and most of the plot was written mostly for dramatic effect. I didn’t really feel like Emma grew much as a character, and the side characters were all fairly bland.

Will I give Reid’s other novels a chance? Sure. Her writing was nice, and I’ve heard endlessly good things about Daisy Jones. Plus, Sam Claflin was just announced as a cast member for the adaptation, so you know I’m down for that.

I had absolutely no idea what this graphic novel was about, but one day at work, I was sorting our most recent truck shipment, and the cover caught my eye. I briefly skimmed the synopsis – missing ex-girlfriend and the journey to figuring out not only what happened to her but who she really was? Yes, please. I will say, the artwork in this is really something. I love the cover, and the inside work was all done really well. I want to give it more stars just for that, however, the story was slightly confusing.

I ended up giving this one three-out-of-five stars because of the plot. What starts out as a mystery with a potential true crime twist actually turns into a confusing time traveling, sci-fi love story? A lot of the story didn’t make much sense until almost the very end, which by that point, I was almost ready to give up. I’m kind of glad I didn’t for at least the last couple of frames of the book – those were some cool twists.

All in all, I haven’t read any truly great books. I’m still working my way through The Ruin of Kings for the book club with my friends, and I want to start The Other People so I can join in the live show for The Literally Dead book club as well. We’ll see if those get any higher ratings in the next couple of weeks!